For the next several weeks we’ll be rolling out our list of the best The Moment’s of 2013. The list is the product of winnowing down 173 moments from April to October into the best twenty. They vary in their importance but all captivated us in an important way. A few are silly, a few are excellent plays, and a few will travel down in Tigers lore. I hope you enjoy it.

#12 – Anibal Sanchez nearly throws a no hitter

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At the time, I wrote that it snuck up on us. Sanchez didn’t look dominant early on and his stuff wasn’t dynamite out of the gate. Both times I watched Verlander toss a no-hitter, I knew he was on from the first batter. He’s had that look other times, but on the night of his first one in 2007, I said to my father after the top of the first that “no one’s touching him tonight.” They didn’t. Sanchez didn’t have that look early, but before you knew it he had kept a zero under the “H” column in the box score. The tension built in the final innings until that pesky Joe Mauer came to the plate ready to ruin everyone’s good time. There’s something about a Friday night game during the summer – there’s just a different feel, even 700 miles away. It felt like it was going to be a spectacular finish right up until Mauer sent one right back up the box. Sanchez nailed down the shutout, but the no-no was gone. A great moment, even if it didn’t end the way you wanted it to. Pretty much the whole season in one game right there.

How Was The Game (May 24, 2013)

For the next several weeks we’ll be rolling out our list of the best The Moment’s of 2013. The list is the product of winnowing down 173 moments from April to October into the best twenty. They vary in their importance but all captivated us in an important way. A few are silly, a few are excellent plays, and a few will travel down in Tigers lore. I hope you enjoy it.

#13 – Verlander Duels Sonny Gray

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One wouldn’t characterize the ending of this game as “good” or “something that didn’t make the author pout in disgust,” but the actual process of getting there was something else. Verlander had a rocky season, but he got it together down the stretch and was absolute nails in this game. He went seven innings, allowed four hits and a walk to go with 11 strikeouts including a really awesome battle in which he send Stephen Vogt down swinging with two on in the 5th. Gray was awesome in his own right, going 8 scoreless before the bullpens and managers decided a game that belonged to the starters. Several people proposed and I concurred that Verlander and Gray should have had to stay in the game until one of them lost it.

It was an amazing pitchers’ duel, even if it didn’t go the right way. The series did, and that’s really all that matters.

How Was The Game (October 5, 2013)

For the next several weeks we’ll be rolling out our list of the best The Moment’s of 2013. The list is the product of winnowing down 173 moments from April to October into the best twenty. They vary in their importance but all captivated us in an important way. A few are silly, a few are excellent plays, and a few will travel down in Tigers lore. I hope you enjoy it.

#14 – Alex Avila’s 9th inning homerun in Houston

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The Tigers had an early lead in this one, but lost it during a strange 7th inning in which the Astros scored on an error and an infield hit. In the top of the ninth, Kelly worked a leadoff walk, Peralta flied out to center, and Alex Avila, who was already stuck in his early season rut came to the plate. He worked a 3-0 count before taking the fourth pitch for a strike. The next pitch, from future teammate Jose Veras, came right down the middle and Avila smashed it to right center. Avila struggled for the next couple of months before turning it on down the stretch, but this big swing in Houston was one of the most excited plays of the year.

How Was The Game? (May 3, 2013)